Toys and Mathematical Options for Retention in Engineering (Toys'n MORE) broad impact- The campuses

Toys and Mathematical Options for Retention in Engineering (Toys'n MORE) is a retention project under development at The Pennsylvania State University through an NSF-sponsored, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP grant, DUE # 0756992). It is being conducted in collaboration with 15 Penn State campuses and the College of Engineering at University Park. Its goal is to increase retention of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students at Penn State. The broad impact of the Toys'n MORE project is twofold: (1) the implementation of programs to enhance retention is STEM fields across a coalition of 15 Penn State campuses with more than 18,000 students at widely dispersed geographical locations throughout the state of Pennsylvania and (2) the ability to leverage resources and expertise to employ an interdisciplinary approach to improving student performance. The 15 Penn State coalition campuses steadily attract close to 775 first-year students who declare engineering as their preferred major. On the average, 30 percent of the students head towards a baccalaureate degree in engineering and another 30 percent pursue other non-engineering STEM fields at any number of locations in the Penn State system. On the other hand, of the first-year students who declare engineering as their preferred major, approximately 35 percent drop out of college altogether without pursuing any other STEM fields. Furthermore, examining 2001 data, the retention rate after two years for underrepresented (African American, Native or Hispanic) first-year students who declared engineering as their major during their freshman year was found to be approximately 13 percent. In other words, 87 percent did not pursue any STEM fields. This paper focuses on the coalition of 15 Penn State campuses and their overall enrollments, their pre-calculus enrollments, targeted engineering numbers, and their retention projects. The information is summarized and presented in reference to the 15 campuses.